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Tags: Art Travel / India Travel / Mumbai Travel / Museum Travel / → All Tags

Is Mumbai Working To Become A Capital Of Contemporary Art?

We tend to think of Paris or Florence as the places to go for an art hit, but India's largest city Mumbai might be the up-and-coming spot. A new art gallery has just opened there and wants to start showing off India's huge art tradition to the world.

The Gallery BMB is one of the first new galleries in India for a long time—the few that do exist are mostly from British colonial times—but the directors predict it will be the first of many more. It will showcase art from international artists as well as encourage emerging Indian artists to make a name for themselves.

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Tags: Cruising With Celebs / Jean-Michel Cousteau / Cruises / → All Tags

The Life Aquatic with Jean-Michel Cousteau

A lot of cruises offer snorkeling or other underwater entertainment as part of your ticket price. But what's there to see, and how will you know what you're looking at? Regent Seven Seas Cruises solves that problem by taking aboard Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the famous underwater ecologist who was the inspiration for Bill Murray's character in "The Life Aquatic."

The Mumbai-to-Cape Town includes a whopping nine days at sea, but that just means more opportunities to spot local wildlife under the sea. Cousteau will give lectures and show slideshows of his adventures with dad Jacques and carrying on his legacy, and a travel photographer will offer pointers on how to get the best pictures of that gorgeous coral.

True, a 19-night cruise pushes the limits of what most allotments of vacation days can provide. But you have time now to start hoarding your days off! Besides, everyone's still going on cruises, right?

Related Stories:
· 19-Night India and Africa Cruise [Signature Travel Network]
· Also on Regent Seven Seas: Relive the Moon Landing on the High Seas [Jaunted]
· Cruising with Celebs coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: detroitsunrise]

Tags: Airport WiFi / Airport-WiFi-Map / BOM / → All Tags

Mumbai City Network Is Dead, Airport Access Remains

There probably isn't much dancing in the streets of Mumbai over the city's stalled public-private WiFi project. The resultant cloud of connectivity wouldn't have been free to local residents, but it would have cost just Rs 50 ($1) to get hooked up -- a bargain compared to the cost of installing an Internet connection in a business or private residence.

Sadly, the dream of cheap Internet access exploded with the terrorist attacks last November, and now police are actively working to shut down open WiFi networks in case people who bear the city ill will try to use them. At least at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, you can buy access through Tata Indicom at the price of Rs 57 ($1.11) for 50 minutes -- slightly cheaper than it would have cost on the city network that now will never be.

Found a signal so clear it makes you say "Jai Ho"? Let us know.

Related Stories:
· BMC's Rs 50 plan to make Mumbai WiFi-enabled [Times of India]
· After Mumbai, Will India Ban Google Earth? [Jaunted]
· Police in India sweep for unsecured Wi-Fi networks [Network World]
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]

Tags: Tours / Slumdog Millionaire / Movie Set Travel / → All Tags

An In-Depth Report of the 'Slumdog Millionaire' Tours

We wondered last month whether Slumdog Millionaire jaunts through Mumbai's slums were inspiring or exploitative, and now the London Paper is back from India with a full report on Reality Tours and Travel's excursion through the Dharavi slums where the movie is set. The verdict? Well, still complicated. Aspects of it do sound like kind of a creep-tastic thing to do:

...walking down the tightly packed warrens of the residential area seems hugely invasive. Families are packed into single rooms and squeezing past the open doorways feels like walking through someone’s living room – we hear the blast of a TV, mothers scolding their children and the clatter of pots and pans being cleared away…

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Tags: Travel Tours / Awards Show Travel / Slumdog Millionaire / → All Tags

'Slumdog Millionaire' Tour: Effective or Exploitative?

First comes the critical accolades, next come the tourists: The same week "Slumdog Millionaire" got ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, a Mumbai company announced it would start offering the "Slumdog Experience," giving film lovers the chance to see the real-life neighborhoods in Danny Boyle's movie.

Reality Tours and Travel is no flash in the pan: The joint India-English owned company was founded two years ago to introduce visitors to the Dharavai slum outside of Mumbai. Cameras are not allowed and visitors travel on foot in order to be as inconspicuous as possible, with the guides speaking to local residents as they travel.

Of course anyone who has seen "Slumdog Millionaire," in which our hero works for a spell as a tour guide in Agra, knows the, er, perils of shady operators on the road. But we're liking the do-gooder aspect of pumping the profits from these tours (a 2.5-hour trip is $10) back into the surrounding communities, including into an associated NGO providing vocational training and English lessons. It seems like a better way to enact change than, say, trying to win a milli on a national game show.

Related Stories:
· Slum Tours [Reality Tours and Travel]
· Slumdog Millionaire: The Experience [Faded Youth Blog]
· Slum Visits: Tourism or Voyeurism? [NYTimes article via Realitytoursandtravel.com]
· Movie Set Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Guardian.co.uk]

Tags: Google Earth / India Travel / Security / → All Tags

After Mumbai, Will India Ban Google Earth?

Google Earth, the magical software that makes real life more like Second Life, may have been used in the planning of the recent terrorist assault on Mumbai, says a lawyer who has filed suit in the Bombay High Court. He's hoping that the Indian government will order a "complete ban on Google Earth and similar sites like Wikimapia" in the interest of national security.

Indian officials have previously expressed concerns about security and mapping software, as in 2006 when then-President Abdul Kalam warned about Google Earth and its utility to terrorists. The search giant agreed in 2007 to blur out some imagery that India deemed sensitive, but that clearly didn't include tourist-friendly venues in the heart of Mumbai.

To us, this is a case of "guns don't kill people, people do." Even the areas worldwide already blurred out by Google are listed on the internet, and making photos of "sensitive" facilities--whatever that means--difficult to obtain doesn't eliminate threats. But the band of terrorists in Mumbai wasn't looking to take out a secret military installation; their goals were massive chaos, a high body count and as much media exposure as possible.

As to whether an eventual ban on Google Earth will help stem violence in India, a company spokesman tells The Telegraph:

Tools such as Google Earth are built from information that is already available from both commercial and public sources, and it is important to remember that the same information is available to anyone who purchases imagery from those public sources.

Related Stories:
· Complete Ban on Google Earth Sought [Times of India]
· Surveying Mumbai After the Terror Siege [Jaunted]

[Photo of the Bombay High Court: Google Earth]

Tags: Dangerous Travel / India Travel / → All Tags

Surveying Mumbai After The Terror Siege

The unbelievably destructive, three-day assault on Mumbai is now over, and the city is still in shock as Indian officials, reporters and locals alike try to piece together what exactly happened and who was responsible. Meanwhile foreign governments are warning citizens to stay away.

The US State Department--soon to be led by Hillary Clinton!--is warning Americans "to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness" while in India, and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office "advise[s] against all but essential travel to Mumbai until further notice."

Mumbai now finds itself in the company of Bali, Istanbul, London, New York and Madrid, all places with booming tourism industries that were threatened by an act of terrorism. But despite the understandable fear of heading to the city, things are already getting back to normal, says the IHT's Globespotters blog, with cabs trolling the streets, trains running and some restaurants and hotels open again. Many cafes and hotels in South Mumbai, near the sites of the attacks, though, are still closed.

Related Stories:
· Travel Update: Some Advice for Visitors to Mumbai [Globespotters]
· Mumbai's Tourist Sites Assaulted By Gunmen [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ninad Chaudhari]

Tags: Dangerous Travel / India Travel / → All Tags

Mumbai's Tourist Sites Assaulted By Gunmen

The seaside city of Mumbai came under heavy, coordinated attack by gunmen today, and more than 60 have already been killed as assaults, some involving grenades and automatic weapons, continue at swanky hotels and a train station. Earlier in the day, shots were fired at Leopold Restaurant, a tourist favorite.

It's still too early to know the motive for the attacks, though some European Parliament members were staying at the targeted Taj Mahal Hotel in advance of an EU-India summit. Meanwhile, the BBC spoke to some sources who say gunmen were targeting foreigners.

Ironically, New York City was in a state of heightened alert today, after a vague threat was made about possible attacks on the subway there. There's no specific warning from the US State Department about travel to India, though this sort of thing clearly falls under the "worldwide caution" that the agency maintains.

Related Stories:
· Mumbai Rocked by Deadly Shootings [BBC]
· At Least 40 Dead in Mumbai Attacks [AP, via Google]
· Luxury Hotels Attacked by Terrorists in Mumbai [HC]

[Photo of the Taj Mahal Hotel: Ambalavs]

Tags: Drunk Travel / Qatar Airways / Airline Hell / Bad Seatmates / → All Tags

Drunk Travel: Hit Flight Attendant, Get Tied Up

Another airline passenger makes it into the annals of history this week after his very successful attempt at drunk travel.

This time it's a Kuwaiti man who decided to drink more than his fair share of on-board booze while flying with Qatar Airways from Doha to Bangkok. The man was so drunk that he refused to sit down (let alone wear that necessary seatbelt) and hit a flight attendant.

Obviously, hitting flight staff is a big no-no and so the attendants manage to tie his arms and legs together before the pilot made an emergency landing in Mumbai to offload the drunken troublemaker. And we thought Kuwaitis didn't even drink.

Related Stories:
· Drunk Passenger Forces Emergency Landing [Times of India]
· Qatar Airways is the Gas [Jaunted]
· Mid-Air Brawl Over Girl [Jaunted]

[Photo: idf-fotos]

Tags: India Travel / Beggars / Cafes / Restaurants / Charity / → All Tags

Mumbai's Drive-Thru Hunger Cafes

The New York Times today reports on an interesting trend in Mumbai where "hunger cafes" take drive-by donations for the starving. These restaurants serve cheap meals to the poor who sit in front and wait for passing motorists to give them the cash they need to eat.

The hunger cafes are clustered together on a street in the city's Muslim Mahim neighborhood. They serve rice and "yellow curried gruel" in both meaty and vegetarian varieties. A meal at one of the cafes costs about 25 cents.

According to the Times, this up close and personal style of charity is a part of Indian culture. The paper reports that "anonymous, checkbook-style charity has yet to catch on" in India. Mumbaikars apparently prefer what the Times describes as good old fashioned "feudal charity: making donations to those below you in your household chain of command."

Related Stories:
· In a Restaurant Row, Drive-Through Charity [NYT]
· India Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: NYT]

Tags: Museums / Literary Travel / India Travel / → All Tags

Rudyard Kipling Museum Coming to Mumbai

Officials in Mumbai plan to turn the birthplace of Rudyard Kipling into a museum honoring the author of The Jungle Book and other tales of colonial life. While India has long had a problematic relationship with the writer--who penned the poem The White Man's Burden--the museum hopes to credit Kipling as a literary ambassador of Indian life, with the caveat that his pro-colonial stance was a product of his turn-of-the-century ideals.

Times of India columnist Swapan Dasgupta says the museum is perfect for Mumbai:

[Kipling was] probably the greatest chronicler of India at the turn of the 20th century, who captured the flavour of India to a point where it became folklore.

If you can't get to Mumbai to see the museum, two other Kipling homes are popular with visitors. The writer lived at 43 Villiers Street in London from 1889 to 1891, between the Charing Cross and Embankment tube stations. In Brattleboro, Vermont, you can even spend the night in Kipling's Naulakha estate and try to draft your own tales of distant lands.

Related Stories:
· India Plans Museum for Rudyard Kipling [NPR]
· "Imperialist" Kipling Gets Indian Rehabilitation [Telegraph]
· India Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: bombay dreams2006]

Tags: India Travel / Celebrity Restaurants / Restaurants / → All Tags

Will We See Planet Bollywood?

Coming soon to the land of Bollywood... India is going to get its very own Planet Hollywood. Sounds like an interesting combination.

News is that celebrity-owned Planet Hollywood has done a deal with the Arch Millennium Corporation to set up franchised Planet Hollywood restaurants in India. The first should hit Mumbai early next year with more restaurants planned for New Delhi, Bangalore, Goa and Hyderabad.

And while the restaurant names won't honor the wonders of the Indian cinema industry, the menu might: The plan is to include some dishes named after Bollywood stars. Can't wait to read that menu.

Related Stories:
· Planet Hollywood to Open Restaurants in India [Thaindian News]
· India Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Adam Mulligan]